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Hudson brewery acquisition deal leads to lawsuit

The former owner of a Hudson craft brewery is suing the Twin Cities business that acquired it in 2015, alleging it’s not abiding an agreement reached during the sale.

The case was filed May 29 in St. Croix County Circuit Court.

The plaintiff, Woodbury resident Greg Harris, was the former owner of American Sky Brewing Co., the Hudson-based business that was bought three years ago by the Minneapolis beer producer Lucid, which has since changed its name to North Loop BrewCo.

North Loop BrewCo did not respond to an email Tuesday seeking comment on the matter.

According to the complaint:

Harris and Lucid entered into an agreement in May 2015, provisions of which allowed the brewing company to pay Harris either 2 percent of the equity or a total of $100,000. In exchange, Harris agreed to not compete with or interfere with Lucid’s business.

Harris fulfilled his end of the bargain, but as of May, Lucid had not.

Terms of the agreement called for the equity percentage to be paid beginning in June 2016 and to run annually through 2019. If the equity option wasn’t elected to be paid out annually, then Lucid was presumed to have elected to pay the cash option for that year.

Lucid was allowed to defer cash payment for the first two years of the agreement until June 1, 2018 — at which point the entire amount due to that point, $50,000, would come due.

Lucid had made no cash payments as of the May 29 court filing.

Both parties have “uncertainty and insecurity” about the status of the agreement, which Harris wants a judge to sort out.

Mike Longaecker is the regional public safety reporter for RiverTown Multimedia. His coverage area spans St. Croix and Pierce counties. Longaecker served from 2011-2015 as editor of the Woodbury Bulletin. A University of Wisconsin-River Falls graduate, Longaecker previously reported for the Red Wing Republican Eagle and for the Forum Communications Minnesota Capitol Bureau. You can follow him on Twitter at @Longaecker